Release Date: May 12, 2012 Run Time: 96 minutes Director: Tsutomu Hanubasa
Main Cast:
Satomi Ishihara as Akane Ayukawa
Koji Seto as Takanori Ando
Yusuke Yamamoto as Kiyoshi Kashiwada
Ryosei Tayama as Det. Yugo Koiso
Ai Hashimoto as Sadako
I'll keep this short as there seems to be 100's of reviews out there, some were positive but most are a bit negative as it easily was the worst of the 5 to date but was an okay watch, don't think it merits repeated viewings though.
Times are now a bit more modern so instead of a VHS tape which gets transferred around the video is on the internet so now hordes of people can watch it. Hordes don't though as it gets moved around from site to site and often gets deleted but many people are consumed with viewing the video and spend most of their time searching for the video. Enough do watch it as there are many suicides happening around Tokyo and some other parts of the country but mainly around Tokyo which is where the film takes place.
Akane is a high school teacher who has one student who is spending all her time looking for the rumored video, like the others since the first film when you watch it your life will come to a brutal ending at your own hands or perhaps have someone do it for you such as jumping in front of a train or truck which happens a few times in the film. Akane's student eventually does find the video and watches it on her cellphone, before you know it she's jumped out of her window clutching the phone.
Scenes like that continue throughout the film as numerous people end up finding the video on the internet and end up meeting their death. The mastermind if you want to call him that is Kashiwada who created the video, he also staged his own death on the internet, those who watched it ended up of course killing themselves. However it appears he really didn't commit suicide as the police could not find his body, he's still out there putting the video on the internet as the death toll keeps increasing.
Akane is abit of a mystery, she has some special abilities though we're not sure exactly what they are, she has a 'talent' to scream quite loud, loud enough to break windows and create general mayhem. This ability helped her and her classmates when she was in high school as a deranged man once invaded the school looking to hurt as many as he could but Akane's scream ended up saving the day. Naturally all the students thought she was some sort of freak and stayed away from her, one student who didn't though was Takanori. The two of them ended up going out and flash forward about 10 years and both are living together but haven't tied the knot yet. Another of Akane's students came close to seeing the video but luckily Akane saved her from viewing the whole thing but this starts off a chain of events as the video is getting closer to closer to Akane, was this the real purpose of the video?
It is the purpose of the video to find Akane, one evening Takanori stumbles upon the video and starts to watch it but once again Akane stops someone from watching the whole thing. This didn't help as Sadako(?) can move freely around the internet and starts to emerge from the computer. The pair manage to escape but not for long as Takanori is captured by Sadako and is held hostage. Now it's Akane's mission to find and she starts out on the hunt along with a detective named Koiso who has been a bit troubled by the events surrounding Akane, he knows something is going on because of her but doesn't know what. The two of them eventually find Sadako or it should be she found them as she erupts out of a well and ends up killing Koiso, we think she does but actually he makes a return in sequel. There are many Sadakos as they keep coming and coming for Akane, she somehow ends up defeating them all, kind of unbelievable as they turn into hideous monsters and she's a bit of a frail woman.
Eventually Akane does find Takanori, both are severely injured yet survive but are there going to be any after effects from the Sadakos attacks? Yes there is as Akane had a mini showdown with the original Sadako, she defeated her but before that happened seems Sadako has transferred something mysterious to Akane, once again we're left with exactly what is going on. Film ends at that point as Akane and Takanori are reunited but will their lives be normal once again?
Of course their lives are not going to be normal again but being the end of the film we don't know the future holds for the pair. Reason we don't know yet as the sequel to the film was already planned so all the numerous questions we all have are not going to be answered until the next Sadako 3D movie.
Overall I would grade this a 7/10, certainly watchable especially if you're a Ringu fan but it doesn't merit many viewings, once was enough for me. Some good action scenes and the special effects were quite good but didn't have nearly as much suspense as the better Ringu films. One reason for that too may be the brighter colors, first films were so grayish and dull, this one seemed so much brighter but that could be because it was filmed in 3D, didn't watch it that way though but may have helped as some of the scenes were set up to make the impact more terrifying with 3D.
Just watched the sequel to the film and will be back in a few days with a overview of that film, found it much better than this one but most other reviews I've read about it have the opposite opinions. Most of the questions do get answered in the sequel, perhaps it may have been better to review both films at once but then again almost the entire cast is different. As far as the cast goes they were fine, no award winning performances but they all did a solid enough job. Regardless of whether a film is terrific or not I do end up taking a mega amount of screenshots and have many of them in the next post.
